老板为何不会笑以应对下属

Status and authority shape our facial expressions, turning even a simple smile into a power play, new research suggests.

最新研究表明，地位和权力决定着我们的面部表情，甚至连一个简单的微笑都变成了一个与权力有关的行为。

New experiments, made public this week at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans, credited lightning-quick social reflexes, ingrained in neural circuits, for determining when we smile.

10月中旬，在新奥尔良举行的神经科学学会(Society for Neuroscience)年会上，新公开的一些实验结果表明，神经回路固有的高速社交反射决定了我们会在什么时候微笑。

Generally, we reflexively share or conceal a smile based on rank, power and status, said researchers who analyzed the involuntary facial responses involved in returning or suppressing a smile.

研究人员对自然产生的回应微笑或克制微笑的表情反应进行分析后表示，一般来讲，我们会根据对方官位级别、权力大小和地位高低来做出要么分享微笑要么隐藏微笑的反应。

It is the newest insight into what scientists studying culture and the brain call the 'boss effect,' in which the social pressure of status and power affects our neurobiology.

对于研究文化与大脑的科学家所称的“老板效应而言，这是一个认识上的新突破。在这种效应中，地位和权力导致的社会压力会影响我们的神经生物学系统。

'It shapes your neural architecture,' said cognitive neuroscientist Sook-Lei Liew at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, who has studied the phenomenon but wasn't involved in the research presented this week.

美国国家神经疾病和中风研究所(National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke)的认知神经科学家Sook-Lei Liew说，“它会影响到你的神经元体系结构的形成。她对这一现象进行了研究，但是并没有参与在神经科学学会年会上发布结果的那个研究项目。

The culture of office politics can alter our perceptions of faces and expressions in subtle ways. Normally, we recognize our own face first in a group of photographs, for instance. Under some circumstances, though, it is the picture of our boss that we respond to first, in an involuntary reaction that overrules our usual social reflexes.

办公室政治文化可以悄然改变我们对人脸和表情的认识。比如，在一般情况下，我们从一组照片中会首先识别出自己的脸。但是在某些情况下，我们最先做出反应的却是老板的照片，这是有异于我们平常的社交反射的一种不自觉的反应。

This 'boss effect' can vary by national culture. Chinese workers reacted fastest to a picture of their direct supervisor─but only if the boss had the power to give them a negative job evaluation, according to a study last year by Dr. Liew and colleagues at the University of Southern California and Peking University.

这种“老板效应会因民族文化而异。根据Liew博士和她在南加州大学(University of Southern California)及北京大学(Peking University)的同事去年所做的一项研究，中国员工对他们的直接上司的照片做出的反应最快──但是只有在老板对他们的工作拥有负面评价的权力时才会这样。

By contrast, U.S. test subjects reacted most quickly to a supervisor whom they perceived as more socially influential.

相比而言，美国的受试者做出反应最快的是在他们看来更有社会影响力的上司。

In the test results being presented at the neuroscience meeting this week, researchers at the University of California in San Diego documented how a smile can embody workplace authority.

在神经科学学会年会上发布的测试结果中，加州大学圣地亚哥分校(University of California in San Diego)的研究人员提供的资料显示了微笑何以能够体现职场的权力状况。

Using a technique called facial electromyography, UCSD cognitive neuroscientist Evan Carr tested the reactions among 55 men and women students who were divided into categories of those who felt personally more powerful and those who felt less.

加州大学圣地亚哥分校的认知神经科学家埃文·卡尔(Evan Carr)使用了一种称为面部肌电扫描的技术对55名男生和女生进行了反应测试，这些学生被分成了两组，自我感觉权力较大的一组和自我感觉权力不大的一组。

They were shown videos of people they were told held a high-ranking position, like a physician, or a low-ranking job, like a fast-food restaurant worker.

测试者给他们播放关于一些人的视频，告知他们此人身居高级职位，比如内科医师，或者此人职位低下，比如快餐厅员工。

He recorded the involuntary movements of muscles involved in smiling as they watched the videos, millisecond by millisecond.

卡尔把他们看视频时因不自觉地微笑而产生的肌肉运动记录下来，记录精确到毫秒。

Whether or not someone unconsciously mimics the facial expressions of another─such as by returning a smile─appeared to depend, in part, on how powerful the mimic feels, and the status of the person they are 'mirroring,' he found.

他发现，他们是否会不知不觉地模仿对方──比如以微笑回应对方的微笑──在某种程度上似乎取决于效仿者自身的权力意识以及他们正在“对镜观察的那个人的社会地位。

The researchers found that when people felt they were powerful themselves, they would rarely return a high-ranking person's smile, automatically suppressing the tendency to mimic an engaging grin, the researchers found.

研究人员发现，当人们觉得自身拥有足够的权力时，他们甚少以笑容回对身居高位者的微笑，而是自动克制自己去效仿一个迷人笑容的冲动。

'You might be feeling more competitive,' Mr. Carr said.

卡尔说，“这样你可能会觉得自己更有竞争力。

Those who felt more powerless, however, automatically mimicked everyone else's smile, regardless of rank.

然而，那些觉得自己权利不大的人会自觉对每一个人的微笑做出回应，无论对方的职位是什么。

'Your feelings about power and status seem to dictate how much you are willing to return a smile to another person,' Mr. Carr said. 'We are really able to act as a human chameleon and react to these social situations without really being aware of doing it.'

卡尔说，“你对权力和地位的意识似乎决定了你有多大意愿回应别人的微笑。我们真的能够像变色龙一样对各种社会环境做出反应，自己对此却浑然不知。